Ten Commandments, part 1

Good morning friends,
It's been a little while since we've read from Exodus. Earlier we read how God brought Israel out of Egypt and how twice in the desert Israel cried out to God about being hungry or thirsty and God satisfied them. Our reading moves forward a few chapters. The people have arrived at Mt. Sinai to worship God. If we look back to when God first called Moses to speak to Pharaoh, God said that the sign of God's presence would be that after their liberation the people would worship at Mt. Sinai. Now that promise has been fulfilled and God gives the people the Ten Commandments, which are the "bullet points" of the covenant God makes with Israel to be their God. The commandments are given application and depth by further laws and ordinances that God shares with Moses after the Ten Commandments, but we can tell that these commandments can be read broadly to guide community life. Thousands of years later, they still speak to us. Today we'll consider the first four commandments.

Blessings,
Sam

Exodus 20:1-11

Then God spoke all these words: 2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.



7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.